Beatriz Luna, PhD

  • Staunton Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics

Phone

412-383-8178

E-mail

lunab@upmc.edu

Personal Website

website link

Education & Training

PhD, University of Pittsburgh (1996)

Campus Address

121 Meyran Ave, Loeffler Bldg. Room 111

One-Line Research Description

Transition from adolescent to adult level cognitive control through fMRI, DTI, PET, MRSI and cognitive testing

The Laboratory of Neurocognitive Development investigates the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie neurocognitive development from childhood to adulthood with a focus on adolescence when adult trajectories are established. We use multimodal imaging including: fMRI, DWI, MEG, PET, and MRSI to measure developmental changes in brain function, connectivity, network organization, and neurochemistry, and their relation to cognitive behavioral assessments as well as other measures including: hormonal assays, and genetics.

Representative Publications

Larsen B, Olafsson V, Calabro F, Laymon C, Tervo-Clemmens B, Campbell E, Minhas D, Montez D, Price J, Luna B. Maturation of the human striatal dopamine system revealed by PET and quantitative MRI. Nat Commun. 2020 Feb 12;11(1):846. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-14693-3. PubMed PMID: 32051403; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7015913.

 

Goda Tarcijonas, William Foran, Gretchen L Haas, Beatriz Luna, Deepak K Sarpal, Intrinsic Connectivity of the Globus Pallidus: An Uncharted Marker of Functional Prognosis in People With First-Episode Schizophrenia, Schizophrenia Bulletin, Volume 46, Issue 1, January 2020, Pages 184–192, https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbz034

 

Maria Jalbrzikowski, Fuchen Liu, William Foran, Kathryn Roeder, Bernie Devlin, Beatriz Luna, Resting-State Functional Network Organization Is Stable Across Adolescent Development for Typical and Psychosis Spectrum Youth, Schizophrenia Bulletin, Volume 46, Issue 2, March 2020, Pages 395–407, https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbz053

 

Goda Tarcijonas, William Foran, Gretchen L Haas, Beatriz Luna, Deepak K Sarpal, Intrinsic Connectivity of the Globus Pallidus: An Uncharted Marker of Functional Prognosis in People With First-Episode Schizophrenia, Schizophrenia Bulletin, Volume 46, Issue 1, January 2020, Pages 184–192, https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbz034


Jalbrzikowski M, Murty VP, Tervo-Clemmens B, Foran W, Luna B. Age-Associated Deviations of Amygdala Functional Connectivity in Youths With Psychosis Spectrum Disorders: Relevance to Psychotic Symptoms. The American Journal of Psychiatry. 2019 Jan 18; appiajp201818040443. PMID 30654642 DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2018.18040443 

 

Tervo-Clemmens B, Quach A, Calabro FJ, Foran W, Luna B. Meta-analysis and review of functional neuroimaging differences underlying adolescent vulnerability to substance use. Neuroimage. 2019 Dec 23;209:116476. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116476. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 31875520.

 

O'Hearn K, Larsen B, Fedor J, Luna B, Lynn A. Representational similarity analysis reveals atypical age-related changes in brain regions supporting face and car recognition in autism. Neuroimage. 2019 Nov 28;209:116322. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116322. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 31786166.

 

Calabro FJ, Murty VP, Jalbrzikowski M, Tervo-Clemmens B, Luna B. Development of Hippocampal-Prefrontal Cortex Interactions through Adolescence. Cereb Cortex. 2019 Oct 31. pii: bhz186. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhz186 [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 31670797.

 

Constantinidis C, Luna B. Neural Substrates of Inhibitory Control Maturation in Adolescence. Trends Neurosci. 2019 Sep;42(9):604-616. doi:10.1016/j.tins.2019.07.004. Epub 2019 Aug 20. Review. PubMed PMID: 31443912; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6721973.

 

Larsen B & Luna B. Adolescence as a neurobiological critical period for the development of higher-order cognition. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2018 Nov;94:179-195. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.09.005. Epub 2018 Sep 7. Review. PubMed PMID: 30201220.

 

Larsen B, Verstynen TD, Yeh FC, Luna B. Developmental Changes in the Integration of Affective and Cognitive Corticostriatal Pathways are Associated with Reward-Driven Behavior. Cereb Cortex. 2017 Jul 5:1-12. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhx162. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 29106535. [DTI]

 

Montez DF, Calabro FJ, Luna B. The expression of established cognitive brain states stabilizes with working memory development. Elife. 2017 Aug 19;6. pii: e25606. doi: 10.7554/eLife.25606. PMCID: PMC5578740. [fMRI]

 

Murty V, Shah H, Montez D, Foran W, Calabro F, Luna B. Age-related trajectories of functional coupling between the VTA and nucleus accumbens depend on motivational state. 2018 J Neurosci. Aug 22;38(34):7420-7427. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3508-17.2018. Epub 2018 Jul 20. PubMed PMID: 30030394.[bfMRI]

 

Marek S, Hwang K, Foran W, Hallquist MN, Luna B. The Contribution of Network Organization and Integration to the Development of Cognitive Control. PLoS Biol. 2015 Dec 29;13(12):e1002328. PMID: 26713863 [rsfMRI]

 

All Publications >